Community group blasts quarry expansion, quotes safety concerns

Glenholme, N.S., is known as a quiet community near the shores of Cobequid Bay, but a group of residents nearby say they aren't getting much peace or quiet.

A proposal to expand a gravel pit in the area is raising some concerns.

“It’s choking out our community," said Little Dyke Lake resident, Ian MacFadden, who's referring to the gravel pit that's being operated by OSCO Aggregates Limited.

The community around Little Dyke Lake consists of close to 60 homes and some of those households are growing concerned about OSCO’s operations and its proposal to expand its open gravel pit.

Residents call it the “sacrifice zone," said MacFadden.

"It describes an area that's being sacrificed and in this case for someone else's profit and it also means you are alone," said MacFadden.

That's why McFadden and a handful of other residents from the community drove 115 kilometres to Halifax to protest at a legislative committee meeting that was examining the state of the film industry in Nova Scotia.

"As serious as this is, that was a bit of a stretch for us," said MacFadden about the protest.

They played audio recordings gathered from the OSCO gravel pit which included the sound of heavy machinery that MacFadden said was "the crusher," a sound the residents say they have to deal with every day, from dusk to dawn.

“Our intention was not to make things miserable for them," said Harvey MacEachern, another resident who was part of the protest.

MacEachern said protesting isn’t something they’ve done before but as a tactic, they thought it would draw the attention of politicians and media which have been unresponsive to their concerns, until now.

"We are undergoing a letter campaign," said MacEachern. "But letters can be written ad-nauseam without a whole lot of response."

OSCO Aggregates Ltd. which is owned by Irving, submitted an application to expand its aggregate mining operation by 30 hectares, to continue excavating stone and sand from their property know as Pit Number 4.

OSCO Aggregates Ltd. is looking to expand is gravel pit operations near Little Dyke Road by 30 hectares. (CTV/Jesse Thomas)According to the proposal, it will include the addition of an electric stone washing, cleaning and crushing plant, with the development of a new access road and fuel storage site.

The homeowners aren’t against the expansion but want their concerns about heavy traffic, noise pollution and dust addressed.

They aren’t satisfied with the current proposal and want some safety assurances built in.

"We're not trying to stop this operation dead in its tracks, what we are doing is trying to make it as safe for the community as possible," said MacFadden.

They want to see the heavy equipment like the stone crusher fully contained and covered.

"We want that equipment enclosed in a purpose-built facility," said MacFadden. "That was they can control the noise and all the dust."

Colchester North MLA Tom Taggart says he understands why the community group protested.

“At the end of the day I want as little disturbance of the community as possible, the dust and noise those are biggest issues,” said Taggart. “Those folks deserve the quality life. I am concerned.”

But Taggart also points out the quarry and the material extracted there is important for the economy and the construction industry.

“There’s people employed there and it’s a valuable resource,” said Taggart.

Colchester North MLA Tom Taggart says he’d like Little Dyke Lake area residents to have more time to express their concerns over the proposed gravel pit expansion. (CTV/Jesse Thomas)He promised he’ll ask the Environment Minister, Tim Halman, to give the community group more time to put forth their concerns.

“I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask for that,” said Taggart.

According to the proposal, OSCO plans to extract 150,000 metric tonnes of sand and stone per year, or more depending on the market.

Residents say in order to meet that quota, trucks will be moving around the clock and a new route into the gravel pit to be constructed, in order to take the heavy trucks off Little Dyke Road.

"It's not safe to do anything on this road anymore," said MacFadden. "We lost it to OSCO. It's not 'Little Dyke Road' anymore it's ‘OSCO Drive.’"

The minister of environment has until July 26 to review the evidence and make a decision regarding the gravel pit proposal. 

CTV News reached out to OSCO with an interview request but nobody was made available by the time this story was published.

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